“All I’m saying is there’s no reason for us to be here,” Octavia grumbled irritatedly, “We were here to keep the Federation from misusing the White Peace Device, and we failed miserably. Why are we still here?”

“Because Aunt Sabina was pissed at us for failing and now we need to make up for it,” Vita remarked boredly, her voice flat as she droned.

“Okay yes, I know that,” Octavia replied, “But that doesn’t make it any better. How is one amaranthian going to make a difference here? This is a massive military operation, I might as well just be a drop of water on the fire at this point.”

“It’s just for show, babe,” Mack replied reassuringly, “You stick it out, represent your people the best you can, then the Empress’ll be happy and let you come back home. Easy peasy, right?”

“Right… easy,” Octavia replied flatly, her eyes wandering across the monstrosity in front of her.

Her eye twitched as she gazed upon the specter of the dead ship, the pit in the center of her stomach telling her that it would be anything but easy. She gulped quietly as she gazed across the surface of Longsword 771, its chassis repaired where it could be and replaced where it couldn’t. The door facing her was clearly a different shade of green and a different model than the opposite door, its design painfully more modern than that of the other.

“I guess they finally couldn’t buff out the bullet holes on that one,” Mack commented with a curious tone.

Octavia’s eyes trailed over the repaired gunship with its multitude of mismatched armored plates, exposed welding beads and old pockmarks. She felt no small amount of dread at the idea of flying into another combat zone trapped within that many-times-welded death machine, but it wasn’t as if she had any other options. Forcing down the wave of anxiety that threatened to cripple her, Octavia steeled herself and boarded the ship, offering a nod to the crew within as she made her way towards the rear-view turret. She was careful not to step on Zuur’s tail as she sidestepped the behemoth curled up in the middle of the crew bay, evidently asleep.

“Heya, Octy,” Alex greeted cheerfully with a wave of her mechanical hand and a wide smile.

“Alex,” Octavia replied politely, nodding towards her as she took her seat at the back.

“Octavia,” Remiel remarked melodically from her crash seat next to Octavia’s turret, “I trust you have made peace with the failure that cost you your girlfriend? We are on due course for oblivion, and I will not have you cost us this mission due to your grief.”

“Woah, hey!” Jace exclaimed sharply, “Don’t talk to her that way, spooky bitch. Fuck the chain of command, I’ll kick your shit sideways if you say something like that again,” he snapped, his pale features immediately filling with red as he glared across the crew bay at Remiel. Octavia blinked in surprise at his outburst, her gaze shifting from Remiel to Jace with a curious expression.

“Noted,” Remiel remarked with a bored tone and a long sigh, leaning back in her seat with an unamused expression.

“Uh… thanks, Jace,” Octavia offered hesitantly.

“No problem, butch!” Jace exclaimed, his features immediately shifting into his typical dumb grin as he flashed a thumbs-up across the crew bay towards her, “Rednecks gotta look after their own!”

Octavia couldn’t contain the warmth she felt blossoming in her chest, her lips turning up into a small grin of her own within the safe confines of her helmet, “Yeah,” she agreed quietly, “We do.”

“If that’s it for the family drama, we’ve got a meeting to get to,” Merith called over her shoulder from the cockpit. Her exclamation was promptly punctuated by the sound of the Longsword roaring to life, its strained internals creaking and groaning as the metal around them began to vibrate violently. The sound immediately made Octavia’s stomach drop, the smile falling off her face as she instinctively gripped onto the seat beneath her with white-knuckled anxiety.

The flight from the Valiant to Perseus Station was a short one as the repaired Longsword 771 sailed out of the hangar bay under the shadow of the looming red gas giant above. Its rings illuminated in the light of the star on the far side of the planet gave the giant the appearance of a red-ringed eclipse, a foreboding specter that surveyed its pocket of the galaxy. The research station was dwarfed compared to the sheer size of the gas giant above, so much so that as they approached the station’s docking ports, their entire vision was taken up by endless swirling red, as if the station were listing in a sea of crimson.

As Octavia stared at the tumultuous storm of red taking up her vision, she began to feel the sensation of static electricity racing between the fine hairs on her body. Each strand of hair stood on end as goosebumps spread across her flesh in a rapid wave, the uncomfortable feeling overwhelming her. Despite this, she found that she couldn’t look away from the incomprehensible red orb.

Her body began to feel further and further away, as though she were sinking through the seat beneath her. The comforting sensation of the armor on her skin disappeared, giving way to a cold void as her stomach lifted into her chest. Her heart rose to her throat and her peripheral vision faded away until all she could see was the swirling storm of red on the other side of the viewport.

As her heart throbbed in her throat and ice-cold blood rushed through her veins, her mind turned towards the events on Destiny. In the swirling red in front of her, she could see muzzle flashes, the glint of rain on the edge of a sword, spreading pools of blood, and incomprehensibly large wings flared on full display. Her back ached as the razor-sharp claws tore through her armor and gripped at her spine, stealing her breath away as every nerve in her body was set alight in a way that made her want to scream into the void.

The gas giant promised death and destruction. It promised oblivion. Octavia’s breath hitched as she sank deeper and deeper into the sensations that were flooding through her, her weightless form drifting through the cold current that threatened to sweep her away forever.

“And that is why one of the requirements for working here is monthly psyche exams,” Remiel’s dry remark instantly snapped Octavia out of her stupor.

Everything snapped back into place like an elastic band under too much strain, taking its form after being let go. Her breath raced back into her body in an overwhelming gasp of filtered air, making her eyes go wide as her chest ballooned outwards. It took everything she could to not start hyperventilating as her senses returned to her in a rush.

Octavia blinked in surprise, her gaze shifting to the corner of her visor where she could see Remiel. Even with her impassive look, Octavia swore that the intelligence agent looked smug as she closed her eyes and reclined against the metal wall of the crew bay.

“What the fuck was that?” Vita all-but shouted with abject horror.

“Okay, so I’m not the only one who felt that,” Mack added with an unsteady voice.

Her chest heaved as she gazed around at the ship with a new perspective on life. Even without looking at the terrifying orb of crimson, she could still see the phantom shade lingering over her eyes like a veil she couldn’t shake off. The corners of the crew bay seemed to deepen as the shadows darkened into a void her eyes couldn’t pierce, only for them to snap back to normal with every blink of her eyes.

“Guys, are you still seeing this?” Octavia whispered unsteadily.

“The red? Yup,” Vita replied, her voice far away and distracted.

“It’s everywhere,” Mack added with a subdued voice.

Octavia’s confusion was forced to take a back seat as the passive noise around her suddenly increased, followed by a renewal of the intense shaking and rattling of the gunship. She glanced out of the rear viewport and confirmed that they had passed into the research station’s hangar, transitioning from the void of space into the artificial atmosphere once again. Octavia was deafened as the ship coasted to the ground and came to an idling halt, her sensitive ears receiving no reprieve from the sound as the new door popped open and slid off to the side.

The hangar beyond was a sterile and boring affair, filled from floor to ceiling with white sterile tiles and easily-cleaned metal surfaces. Everything had a clinical feel to it, with the faint smell of disinfectant reaching Octavia’s nose through her helmet even over the scent of engine grease and spaceship fuel. The hangar was nowhere near the size of any of the Valiant’s cavernous hangar bays, leaving the thirty Longswords who had docked with very little space between one another. Longsword 771 was nearly wing-to-wing with its neighbor, Longsword 101.

As the unforgiving white lights of the station began to assault her eyes, Octavia found that the haze of red that she had been seeing was beginning to fade. Every time she blinked she found that the veil was lifted little by little. By the time she got herself unbuckled from her seat, the haze was gone, giving way to an uncertain clarity.

“Little cramped, innit?” Jace grumbled as he unbuckled himself from his turret seat, shuffling out of the Longsword with narrowed eyes.

“We have to make due, Minuteman Kelly,” B’roka replied as he squeezed down the stairs into the crew bay, following the human out into the small hangar, “Perseus Station was never meant for military operations.”

“I wouldn’t have thought that you would be bothered by tight spaces, coming from a hive city after all,” Remiel remarked with a sneer as she dismounted from the gunship, tucking her gloved hands politely behind her back as she immediately began to stride off across the hangar without waiting for the rest of the crew.

“Well, I wouldn’t have thought the fate of the Federation would lay in the hands of such a bitch,” Jace snapped back, though his words fell upon deaf ears as Remiel disappeared around the nose of the neighboring Longsword.

“What a piece of work,” Alex grumbled, stepping out of the Longsword with a displeased look, “Would it kill her to tone down the attitude a little?”

“You may not agree with her personality, but the Federation Intelligence Agency is the reason why the Federation has lasted as long as it has,” B’roka replied calmly, looking down at Alex as he made a placating gesture, “Just keep your head down and this operation will be over before you know it.”

“Why do I get the sense that those are famous last words?” Vita asked quietly.

“Right up there with someone being a week from retirement,” Mack added playfully.

Octavia rolled her eyes at the commentary and shuffled out of the Longsword, giving Zuur a wide berth. It was still curled up in the center of the gunship’s crew bay and seemed to have no intention of getting up any time soon. With its eyes closed and head down, Octavia was fairly certain that it was actually asleep, but she wasn’t willing to test that theory.

As Merith climbed out of the pilot-side door, Octavia glanced around at the crew assembled with a surprising sense of pride. She wasn’t sure if it was her own pride or not, but she felt close to the eclectic gang of Federation soldiers. They had done right by her over the course of the past two months, and she couldn’t help but smile within the safety of her helmet’s obscurity.

“Shall we?” Merith asked impatiently as she turned towards the crew, gesturing in the direction that Remiel had disappeared.

“We shall,” B’roka replied with a nod. With that, the crew started off through the hangar with Octavia quickly following behind.

They had to circumvent multiple Longswords on their way, without any clear path leading them to their destination. The other crews were also milling about, making their way towards the mission briefing that they were supposed to attend. It was an odd energy in the hangar, a vague sense of dissatisfaction mixed with ambiguous hope to provide a mystifying haze of anxious excitement. Octavia could only imagine what was going through their heads at that moment; rumors of a dangerous new element that could be the key to winning a fifty year war, and the only price they had to pay was influencing a system full of pre-space flight civilizations.

Falling into the current of bodies leading off towards the back of the hangar, Octavia and the rest of the crew were swept away at a dizzying pace as they transitioned from the overstuffed hangar to a narrow hallway. The sterile sensation of the station continued on into the hallway with every surface a well-cleaned metal, carrying with it the overbearing scent of disinfectant. Octavia couldn’t help but compare the station to an oversized hospital.

Eventually the stream of bodies took them into a lecture theater that broke the sterile white aesthetic in favor of wood floors and levels of cloth seats; the transition between the sterile hallway to the warm room caused Octavia no small amount of disorientation. Before she even had time to orient herself within the room she found herself sitting in one of the cushioned seats in the upper levels with Merith to her right and the empty walkway to her left. At the bottom of the lecture theater was a podium, behind which stood Remiel who was flanked by no less than thirty people of the various Federation races wearing white lab coats with field kits resting by their feet.

As the last of the assault force took their seats in the lecture theater, Remiel nodded to someone off to the side of the room who dimmed the lights, casting the large room into darkness. The only lights that remained on were the presenter spotlights aimed at the podium, and the hologram table in front of it which sprung to life in the darkness. An oversized blue hologram appeared above the crystal surface of the table, projecting a scale model of the gas giant Oculus and its ring of asteroids and planetoids. As darkness settled over the room save for the cool blue glow of the hologram table, the general chatter slowed and quieted until eventually the room fell into complete silence.

“Good morning everyone, thank you all for being here today,” Remiel began in a faintly melodic tone, “I am sure that there are more than a few rumors going around as to what we are doing here, and I am going to do my very best to give you the clearest picture possible. Welcome to Operation Underdog.”

The hologram of the gas giant in front of them shifted to reveal a space station hidden within its shadow, tucked away within the dark side of the planet. A small tag appeared beneath it, labeling it Perseus Station as a series of other tags began to populate throughout the rings. Octavia couldn’t help but notice the one she had heard so much about; Erillia, tucked into Oculus’s ring on the sunward-side.

“There are thirty pre-spaceflight civilizations located on planetoids within this ring. Each one was carefully planted there, each planetoid meticulously terraformed to be self-sustaining gaia worlds. Their gracious host was a spacefaring civilization of psionic beings that lived on Oculus’s only moon - which, as you can see, has since fractured into more debris in the ring,” the agent explained as she flicked something behind the podium, causing the hologram to rotate.

On the far side of the gas giant there was a particularly dense cluster of much larger asteroids than what the rest of the ring was composed of. After an unknown amount of time the debris had drifted into a shapeless cluster that would easily be missed, but with it highlighted in the hologram Octavia could easily see where the moon used to be. The chunks were considerably smaller than she expected would come from a moon being destroyed - as the presentation went on, she began pulling up articles in her retinal display for cross-referencing and came to the conclusion that the moon must have suffered a cataclysmic geological event for it to break apart in such small pieces.

“The civilization that was responsible for the cultivation of these planetoids has been dubbed the Curators by the research team here. We aren’t sure what happened to the Curators, but we do know that they intentionally terraformed the planets to harvest their occupants as mental crops. Think of it as psionic agriculture,” Remiel explained with a dry chuckle. The implications caused a small wave of chatter to rise from the assembly before being quieted down again as Remiel continued her presentation.

“They achieved this feat of biological engineering by utilizing the natural resource present within Oculus itself; element deltium, dubbed Erillium by the researchers here. Element deltium is scarcely understood and even more scarcely handled, but from our understanding it is a transmutable element similar to Alarium. By transmuting Erillium through focusing methods, it can produce any number of observable effects in the world around it. The Curators developed such focusing devices and implanted them within the largest asteroids surrounding Oculus, which produced the gaia worlds you see today.”

Another wave of murmurs began to roll through the lecture theater, causing Octavia’s ears to twitch slightly. She could hear various discussions occurring around her, some of them talking about psionic overlords, others talking about the endless possibilities of such a powerful element. For her part, Octavia remained single mindedly transfixed on the presentation, her infinite sense of curiosity drawn in by this previously unknown information.

“While we have not been able to harness this element ourselves, there are two things of note. One; there exists an array of devices that can transmute the element to produce various effects, and these devices can be found on the planetoids. We’ve utilized stealth drones to recover a multitude of them for experimentation, but have been unable to replicate the effects. Two; the natives of the thirty planets are fully capable of harnessing this element naturally due to their exposure to it throughout their formative years. While we are not capable of utilizing it naturally, the natives are, and to that end the natives are to be considered extremely dangerous.”

There was a brief pause before Remiel continued, “If you encounter any native resistance, your orders are shoot to kill.”

The room immediately burst into lively discussion, causing Octavia’s helmet to reflexively block out the noise. Despite the mechanical filtration, Octavia could still distinctly hear the tones of outrage and shock as the soldiers around her protested. Some of them remained seated with looks of discomfort while others leapt to their feet to begin shouting their objections without any consideration for decorum. The entire room was immediately an uproar at the order, with even Lieutenant B’roka shifting forward in his seat as if he wanted to say something but wasn’t willing to interrupt the shouts coming from all around him.

“Quiet!” Remiel’s voice boomed deafening throughout the room with enough weight behind it to instantly shut up the protests. Arguments died on their tongues, mouths snapped shut, people sat down reflexively, and within the second the entire room was silent once again. The tension in the atmosphere was thick enough that Octavia could cut it with her blade if she really tried, and all eyes were focused directly on Remiel in mixtures of outrage and disbelief.

“I understand your objections to the suspension of Directive 12 and the authorization of lethal force on unenlightened native populations. However, we are at the turning point of the war, ladies and gentlemen. If we succeed here, we can put a stop to the Omni Animus once and for all,” Remiel declared firmly, her face remaining predictably impassive as she spoke with enough authority and determination that even Octavia had a hard time forming a rebuttal, “Are any of you not willing to do what’s necessary to end this war?”

There was silence in the room for several moments as Remiel peered out into the crowd, ensuring that there would be no more interruptions. Though several of the soldiers around the room looked like they still wanted to argue, no one dared speak a word. Silence loomed until the sound of a pin dropping would be deafening.

“Good,” Remiel declared firmly, “Then your orders are as follows,” she declared as she swiped her hand across the podium. Erillia popped into focus, separate from the holographic Oculus and its ring, and a small window on the hologram opened up to reveal the same picture of the doorway in the mountain as Octavia had seen during her meeting with the Federation leadership.

“Each planetoid has a control room similar to this one, which we believe is what directs Erillium into the terraforming and populating process. Your first objective will be to locate and secure your planet’s control room; you will each be assigned a Perseus researcher to assist in this matter,” she explained, gesturing to the row of thirty white-coated scientists behind her, “Your second objective will be to protect your researcher as they conduct a survey of the site. Thirdly, lock down your site for as long as the researcher needs to access and secure the Erillium source. Once you have the element secured, extract your researcher and return to the Valiant for immediate evac to the nearest FIA facility, which is located in the rear-lines of Amaranthian space.”

“Furthermore, we have reason to believe that the Omni Animus will interfere in our operation. We are unsure as to how many ships have been sent, but there’s likely to at least be one Throne carrier. In light of that, if an engagement with the Animus on the surface is unavoidable, collateral damage is hereby permissible. Your only objectives today are the ones we have discussed; all other Federation policies, rules of engagement and Directives are suspended. We will only have one shot at ending the war like this, and the FIA has concluded that it is worth the sacrifice,” Remiel declared sharply, turning her gaze across the room with furrowed eyebrows and a stern expression that quelled the objections before they even had time to be voiced this time around.

“During this operation, the Valiant will run interference with any Omni forces in the area, and provide ground support whenever possible. However, the Valiant and its fighters are there to buy you time before anything else. Your first and only concern should be getting your researcher safely to your planet’s control room, and then getting back to an FIA facility with the data collected. If anything should happen to the Valiant, you are instructed to make your own way back with the data using any means necessary.”

The hologram in front of Remiel shifted to a new display, revealing all thirty planets front and center. Remiel was about to begin speaking, but she was immediately silenced as an alarm within the station suddenly began to wail, causing Octavia and several others in the crowd to jump in surprise. The lights in the room immediately flickered on, joined by the pulsing red of emergency lights. One of the speakers in the wall crackled to live with a terrified voice projected through it.

“All hands, all hands! This is not a drill! It’s the Omni! They came out of nowhere! I repeat, it’s the Omn--” the voice was cut off by a sudden violent shaking of the station around them. Octavia was shaken in her seat so violently that she had to press her hands to the seat in front of her to stop herself from falling to the floor. Her eyes went wide as she looked at the rest of the assembly around her, watching as people began to scramble to their feet as a fresh wave of conversation began.

The shaking of the station increased, followed by a multitude of explosions rocking the entire facility from somewhere far below. One of the overhead fixtures fell out of its socket and smashed on the ground below, followed swiftly by several ceiling tiles as the station began to rock itself to pieces. Octavia felt Merith’s hands on her shoulder and was hastily pushed out into the stairs leading out of the room as the alari pilot began to literally shove her out into the hallway.

Octavia didn’t have time to get her bearings or come to her senses as Merith shoved her along from behind, parting the doors with her own chest awkwardly as she stumbled out into the sterile hallway once again. Behind her she could hear the commotion of the teams shoving their way out behind her, and before she even knew what was happening she was being rushed through the hallways back in the direction they had come from. She couldn’t even righten herself from her stumbled position, instead all she could do was continue to stumble in the direction that Merith was shoving her with the weight of a crowd of panicked soldiers directly behind her.

The swarm of soldiers, pilots and researchers charged their way through the station, running as fast as the claustrophobic halls would allow them. Bodies bumped into one another, every now and then someone would stumble and fall into the crowd, disappearing beneath the feet of the herd of people behind them. But no one stopped to help them. The congregation furiously broke into the hangar and sprinted for their vehicles with no regard for one another, rushing to be the first out of the crumbling hangar.

The chaos in the hangar only increased as support struts and overhead lighting fixtures fell onto the floor beneath them. The sound of alarms ringing and metal groaning deafened Octavia as she blindly stumbled her way towards Longsword 771, lead only by Meriths hands on the backs of her shoulders and a vague recollection of where in the hangar they had landed their gunship. A sudden shove to the right caused her to stumble, forced to touch her hand to the ground to balance herself as her eyes shot wide - a steel I-beam had come crashing down to the ground where she would have been had Merith not shoved her so forcibly, the impact leaving a small crater in the metal tiles where her next pawstep would have taken her.

“Thanks!” Octavia managed to shout blindly over her shoulder as she scrambled around the next Longsword, putting their ship in sight.

“Shut up and thank me later!” Merith shouted over the deafening sounds all around them as she continued to shove Octavia one step at a time. They scrambled to the side of the Longsword and Merith’s hands left Octavia’s back as the pilot scrambled the side rungs as fast as her arms could carry her, making her way up to the cockpit without even putting her helmet on. Octavia finally managed to catch her balance as she haphazardly flung herself into the crew bay, landing on her chest and rolling to a stop against Zuur’s curled up form.

Zuur didn’t seem to even notice the chaos around them, only opening one eye to regard Octavia with an annoyed expression. It didn’t stand or more, instead it just closed its eye again and let out an explosive snort of irritation. Octavia thanked the Laws for Zuur’s indifference as she rolled away from it, pushed herself to her paws and scrambled towards the rear-view turret seat as fast as her paws could carry her.

“This is so fucked!” Jace screamed as he lept into the crew bay behind her, gripping the edge of the door to wheel himself around into the turret seat in a heap.

“Preaching to the choir, Jace!” Alex replied, her voice raised in a panicked pitch as she flung herself into the crew bay and vaulted over Zuur’s back, depositing herself at the opposite door where she collapsed into her own turret seat.

“Remember your training!” Lieutenant B’roka insisted as he followed the crew into the opening. He paused briefly to sweep his gaze across the crew bay, facing each person briefly before he nodded in satisfaction and scrambled up the stairs to the cockpit, taking a seat in the copilot’s seat next to Merith.

“What training?” Jace retorted wildly with wide-eyes and a panicked expression.

“Point, aim, shoot,” Remiel replied flatly as she appeared in the doorway, gripping an overhead rung to steady herself as she stepped into the crew bay with an irritated expression, “And try not to piss yourself on the way down.”

Octavia was about to retort when the sight of a newcomer stopped her, drawing her attention to the young man that was scrambling into the crew bay behind Remiel. It was an incredibly young human male with short messy blond hair, a smoothly shaven face, and bright blue eyes hidden behind archaic black-framed eyeglasses. Judging by his pristine white lab coat and pressed formal clothes underneath, as well as an overloaded field bag strapped to his back, he appeared to be one of the Perseus researchers. As soon as he steadied himself within the crew bay, his face lit up like a switch had been flicked.

“Hello, everyone!” the researcher declared with a painfully oblivious and cheerful voice, “How exciting is this?” he exclaimed enthusiastically.

“Oh no...” Vita murmured.